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The Roundhill by Dick King-Smith

The Roundhill is a sweet little story by Dick King-Smith, the author of Babe if anyone missed that (I know I did once). Evan is fourteen, it’s 1936 and while he’s happy enough with his life, he feels a little empty and alone. His parents are nice, but very British and not inclined to show affection. He wants to believe in God but he can’t quite understand how God could be real. School is fine but he misses home. Home is full of routines and patterns. The thing he loves most in the world is the Roundhill he can see from his bedroom window, and goes to visit once every holiday. Until he meets a little girl named Alice who looks uncannily like a a famous literary figure sitting on the Roundhill. They become unusual friends, but Evan knows there’s something even more unusual about her.

I probably would have liked this book as a child, but I was kind of an unusual child. Really, it’s an older story, it’s a slow, meticulous and rather beautiful to read and compared with early readers now, it’s probably not going to be the one more kids pick up on their own. It’s also very serious. Evan is a very serious young man, Alice is a more real character, with none of the whimsical (yet dark) feel of Alice in Wonderland. It also felt like it should have an agenda, although I’m not sure what it was. It might have been an innocent lost theme, but I think that’s often missed by children. It’s probably more of a read together kind of book. And for an adult, they might appreciate all the things their kids are missing.

Last movie I watched:

Atlantis: The Lost Empire. I fail to see how Atlantis was an Empire. They didn’t seem to be invading anybody.